The use of pouch-type packages or plastic bags for packaging, storing and subsequent cooking or heating of various food items by suspending the bag in boiling water is commonplace. Such a plastic pouch or bag for cooking is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,615,712 and 3,819,089. In practice, the plastic bags are typically formed in a tubular configuration, cut to length and sealed at one end. After being filled with the desired contents, such as rice or other food items, the bags are typically sealed at the remaining open end.
When a consumer is ready to prepare the food item, the bag is immersed in boiling water to cook the food or to heat it to a desired temperature in the case of precooked food. Upon completion of cooking, the bag, with the cooked contents intact, is removed from the boiling water, the bag is then the torn open, and the contents are removed by inverting the bag in order to dump the contents out of the bag. Usually during cooking, the bag has become sufficiently submerged in the boiling water such that no portion of it is conveniently accessible. In removing the bag from the boiling water, the consumer must use a utensil to retrieve the bag while avoiding subjecting his or her hands to the boiling water and the steam given off by the boiling water.
In addition to having to handle a hot bag, the consumer encounters other problems when removing the contents from the bag. The present bags are difficult to open in that they do not tear easily and require cutting with scissors or other sharp implement. This is a difficult and messy task as the bag is a flexible hot object and is not readily openable. Further, actually removing the contents from the bag requires placing the hands and fingers at one end of the hot bag to invert it for dumping out the contents. The above-discussed problems are burdensome and inconvenient and they detract from the intended convenience of using these packaged food products. Additionally, care must be taken in the use of these packaged food products in that it is not easy for the consumer to remove the package from the boiling water and thereafter to extract the contents of the food from the interior of the package without subjecting him or herself to the high temperatures of the boiling water and steam, as well as the hot food and the package itself.
Accordingly, in view of the current boil-in-bag packages there exists a need for a package that allows for the ease of retrieval of the boil-in-bag package from the boiling water, ease of opening the bag and ease of dispensing the food item from the bag.